(CNSNews.com) - Rebel forces in Kosovo have threatened to carry out an organized "military operation" against the capital city of Pristina by Wednesday night. Calling NATO and United Nations forces "modern occupiers," the Kosovo Independence Army (KIA) said it was lodging the threat because the Kosovo Assembly has not declared independence.

The threat, carried by local media, follows increasing violence against international forces in Kosovo and may lead to an alliance between armed rebel groups and jihadist forces, according to a former security chief from the region.

Rebels have blown up several vehicles belonging to the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the Kosovo Protection Service (KPS), leading UNMIK to warn employees to check their vehicles for bombs before starting the engines.

Prior to the bombing of vehicles, graffiti across Kosovo warned "UNMIK get out!" Last month U.N. vehicles were defaced to read "FUND," which is Albanian for "The End." Internal U.N. emails obtained by Cybercast News Service described the development as "extremely serious."

Cybercast News Service has learned that NATO's Kosovo Force has an emergency plan called "Operation Safe Haven" in place to evacuate internationals. The news organization has also obtained the first communique issued by the Kosovo Independence Army (KIA). It was signed on Oct. 5 and delivered by children to UNMIK police headquarters in Pristina, according to local and U.N. sources.

The KIA promised to apply the "rules of war" and execute parliamentarians who failed to declare independence by Oct. 15. "Kosovar quislings" (collaborators) would be executed as well, the KIA stated. "They don't deserve one bullet in their forehead but seven."

On Friday the KIA ordered UNMIK, which it labeled the "modern occupier," to release all "war hostages" taken since 2000 or UNMIK officers and those who apply U.N. laws and regulations would "suffer."

"[F]or six years you betrayed us," the communique read.

International judges, prosecutors and investigators have also been ordered to "retreat" from Kosovo.

The existence of the KIA was at first denied by UNMIK and the Kosovo Force (KFOR), but later confirmed by UNMIK Police Commissioner Kai Vittrup. KFOR is a NATO-led international force responsible for establishing and maintaining security in Kosovo.

While the KIA is considered a new rebel group, it is made up of former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, said Thomas Gambill, a former security chief for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in the eastern region of Kosovo. OSCE is a regional security group made up of members from 55 countries and operating under the authority of the United Nations. "All rebel groups are offshoots of the KLA. It's just the KLA renamed," Gambill said.

The threatened destabilization of Kosovo comes at a sensitive time, as the United Nations is making preparations for final status talks on the troubled Serbian province.

Gambill believes that Albanian frustration over the independence issue could lead armed rebels to forge an alliance with al Qaeda. Both groups want the international presence out of Kosovo and al Qaeda has a history of attempting to destabilize the Balkans region where it wants to gain influence.

Al Qaeda activity in neighboring Albania has been a primary concern to Gambill since 2000, given the porous borders and intelligence indicating that terrorist training camps were operating in the country. Two months ago, Abdul Latif Saleh, an alleged associate of Osama bin Laden and a resident of Albania, was listed by the United Nations as a terrorism financier. Bin Laden gave Saleh $600,000 to create extremist groups in Albania in order to destabilize the country, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Cybercast News Service, meanwhile, has learned that a bomb which exploded in a downtown market in the town of Strpce last Thursday was a time-triggered IED (improvised explosive device) planted beneath the truck owned by a Kosovo Albanian from Kacanik. The man had gone to the market to sell goods and was injured by the blast. According to Gambill the man was warned recently by members of the KIA to stop doing business with Serbs. No one has declared responsibility for the attack.

"The people are frustrated and scared. Tensions are high." said Gambill who maintains sensitive contacts with officials and Serbian and Albanian locals.

The threats are played down, Gambill said, because "it does not suit the internationals to have a serious crisis such as this at the time when they are sending out reports on how much improvement has been made in Kosovo."

"The time for the KIA-KLA to join with al Qaeda seems to be close at hand," said Gambill. "The Albanian and American love affair will be put to the test."

Terrible, but not exactly unexpected. I shall be praying for all thoose in Kosovo, whether Serb or Albanian, Orthodox or Muslim, or none of the above.

James

Logged

We owe greater gratitude to those who humble us, wrong us, and douse us with venom, than to those who nurse us with honour and sweet words, or feed us with tasty food and confections, for bile is the best medicine for our soul. - Elder Paisios of Mount Athos

This is just terrible, and not at all unexpected. In my opinion, the way NATO has dealt with the Serbian people is one of the greatest tragedies of modern Europe.

As an American and as an Orthodox Christian, few things have caused me greater pain than to witness what has occurred in Kosovo and in the former Yugoslavia generally, especially knowing their history as I do!!!

The threats are played down, Gambill said, because "it does not suit the internationals to have a serious crisis such as this at the time when they are sending out reports on how much improvement has been made in Kosovo."

As if this manipulation of information is something new!

Logged

If you're living a happy life as a Christian, you're doing something wrong.

[As an American and as an Orthodox Christian, few things have caused me greater pain than to witness what has occurred in Kosovo and in the former Yugoslavia generally, especially knowing their history as I do!!!

Lord, have mercy!

odox]

I feel the same way. Even now I can't to see either Clinton or Madeline Albright on T.V. Too bad it will take years before the world will see the evilness of their deeds.

Orthodoc

God Bless the Serbian Orthodox Church and its people!

Logged

Oh Lord, Save thy people and bless thine inheritance.Grant victory to the Orthodox Christians over their adversaries.And by virtue of thy Cross preserve thy habitation.

[As an American and as an Orthodox Christian, few things have caused me greater pain than to witness what has occurred in Kosovo and in the former Yugoslavia generally, especially knowing their history as I do!!!

Lord, have mercy!

odox]

I feel the same way.ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š Even now I can't to see either Clinton or Madeline Albright on T.V.ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š Too bad it will take years before the world will see the evilness of their deeds.

Orthodoc

God Bless the Serbian Orthodox Church and its people!

The politically right thing to do here in the USA is to condemn the Serbs no matter if they are innocent children, women or just plain folks who want to live their lives. Unfortunately, any altercation between the Albanian Muslims and the general Serbian polulation in Kosovo will only draw ire against the Serbs because the American people have been politically programmed to be against the Serbs even though the vast majority had nothing at all to do with the Milosovic reign of terror inside of Kosovo. The pleas of the Serbian people will always fall on deaf ears here in America. Too bad, we usually side with the more democratic and peace loving peoples in the world, but here we are siding with the ultimate religious Islamofacist zealots who are bent on dominating the world and want to bring their style of religious beliefs to all regardless.

when it comes to Eastern European history, I am extremely not well read at all! So excuse my immense ignorance. In school, we only learn about the French Revolution, western European nationalism, and so on but nothing about East. Euro. other than Catherine the Great of Russia and the Romanovs; and the news is all American propaganda BS which I hardly buy.

Please don't laugh:

Is Kosovo a city or a country? (A city-state?)

It originally belonged to the Serbs? And then when the Balkan countries' boundaries got screwed up after the World Wars (Austro-Hungarian Empire, Prussia) etc, Kosovo fell to the Albanians?

I also beileve that it was/is mostly Orthodox but the Muslims are trying to take it?

If it was originally a Serb Orthodox area, why are the Albanians hell-bent on obtaining it?

So from a national perspective, Albanians are the "Muslim enemies" and the Croatians are the "friendly Catholic emenies"?

The Serbian flag has a double headed eagle (albeit red and white rather than back and yellow). Is that reminiscent of the Byzantine Empire's similar flag? Or is there a different symbolism?

I looked up some info on the internet but it was mostly CNN BS like I said or long anti-Serbian stuff.

Agian please excuse my ignorance. I really should be much more well read on this and other current issues although it is hard to formulate an honest opinion when the media and government continuously give you only some of the info.

Every year, our greek church and the serbain church gets together to celebrate a liturgy together and we also do our traditional dances. It strengthens the Orthodox community as a whole in our city.

I echo the statements of all. This is no surprise. Kosovo will become a training camp, if it is already, for Muslim militants to attack European cities and elsewhere.

Oh well, don't want to get too political here

Well, looks like another country )France cough cough!) is having problems across most of its land with muslims launching attacks. Just a matter of time before other countries like Britian & Germany get hit. Imagine the irony if Germany had to invade France just to stop the islamo-facist fom using it as a base. It's so sad to hear also what's happening in Kosovo....total BS. When they put UN insignia's on our American fighter jets & bombed all the bridges over the Danube that was one of the saddest days for our country. I remember listening to Michael Savage on the radio at that time and he ranted about this months on end. He was just about the only person in the media that was telling the public the truth about the war. We should have just left Serbia alone, now we have made it worse by allowing the drug smuggling muslim Albanians to control that whole region. Sounds like something the international left could only accomplish....

Logged

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."--Mere Christianity

Unfortunately, any altercation between the Albanian Muslims and the general Serbian polulation in Kosovo will only draw ire against the Serbs because the American people have been politically programmed to be against the Serbs even though the vast majority had nothing at all to do with the Milosovic reign of terror inside of Kosovo.

Erm..., what "Milosovic reign of terror" might that have been? We here in the Balkans seem to be ignorant of this particular bit of "history".

Erm..., what "Milosovic reign of terror" might that have been? We here in the Balkans seem to be ignorant of this particular bit of "history".

Oh come on! Haven't you heard the Gospel According to CNN?You know, that reign of terror where he flew air raid sorties and in a cowardly fashion, bombed the terrified citizens of the capital cities of two soveriegn nations.......oh.... wait a minute.....

« Last Edit: November 24, 2005, 06:50:19 AM by ozgeorge »

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If you're living a happy life as a Christian, you're doing something wrong.

Where are the news stories on CNN about Orthodox churches and monasteries being torched? Where has the coverage been of Milosevic's trial? Could it be that maybe the brainwashed American public might discover something that the politically correct left-leaning media might not want them to know? Has any outrage ever been voiced about Clinton's orders to bomb Serbian civilians during Orthodox Holy Week, when we constantly suspend war operations during Ramadan so as not to appear too offensive to our enemies? Has any history book ever made mention of the 700,000 Serbian Orthodox men, women, and children tortured and massacred by the Nazi-allied Pavelic regime in the Balkans during World War II? Or the fact that while Germans who murdered Jews went to Nuremberg, Pavelic allegedly found sanctuary in the Vatican? Where was all this concern for "ethnic cleansing" when the Turkish government up until the 1950s endorsed the murder and deportation of almost the entire Greek population from the country where they had been the majority since ancient times? Well I hope that the American and Western European governments are satisfied with their handiwork. Now things are back to normal, with Christians again being slaughtered. Forgive me for my bitterness. It's early in the morning.

Seeing this thread reminded me of something I heard about a month or two ago. It was on the McLaughlin Group. I don't think they were discussing Kosovo, but as an aside, John McLaughlin and Pat Buchanan said something to the effect that Milosevic was winning the public relations war. There was no context to their comments that gave any indication of what they meant.

Does anyone know what they could have meant by this? Could it be that up in The Hague, Milosevic is gaining sympathy? Could that have something to do with the fact that there have been some problems with militant Muslims in that part of the world lately?

The only thing I can think of, is that most *objective* legal analysts watching the trial think he has done a VERY competent job (during cross examination of prosecution witnesses) and now presenting his defense.

I remember reading (a few months ago) about the testimony of some politician (I believe) who testified (under oath) that he witnessed the Serbian army massing on the Serbian side of the border with Albania, in an apparent formation to committ mass murder against the Albanian civilian population living in Kosovo. During his direct exam, the prosecution witness was able to give GPS coordinates of where he was viewing the troop movements.

Unbeknownst to him, Slobo had pictures into Serbia from the witnesses "alleged" perch. Problem with his testimony was, in order for him to have seen what he testified to, he would have had to see through or over a mountain. In other words, his testimony looked tailored and, lets just say, less than truthful.

However, I don't think public opinion is swayed at all. Everyone I talk to still thinks Slobo was responsible for as many dead as Hitler.